The Seventh Year
by Liana
Summary: Ron never thought he was that special, compared to Harry...but now he finds something that may be a link to the future, past, or somewhere in between...This is my first fic! Please review! No flames, please.
1. The Parchment

When the sun shines like the mist, then I will come...  
Wait for me at the gate, then I will come...  
Four years back and dawn is near, then I will come...  
Seven keys and six holes, then I will come...  
Memories have faded, then I will come...  
Hope is gone, then I will come...  
Of wonderful times gone by, then I will come...  
A sadness upon the shadow, then I will come..  
A locked door, then I will come...  
Cries in the night, then I will come...  
Four steps back and turn around, then I will come...  
Of secrets unspoken, then I will come...  
Figure this riddle, then I will come.  
  
Ron sat dumbfounded at his find. The words made no sense,   
except...of course it had to do with Harry. Obviously, right?   
Everything that was mysterious had to do with Harry.   
Ron sighed and stared at the dust passing through the sunshine.   
It made it look waxy, and gave a lazy feeling...he could stay there for hours...  
dreaming, watching the dust pass like tiny raindrops....he jolted awake.   
Ron reread the first line of the riddle.   
When the sun shines like the mist, then I will come...  
Now shivers ran down his spine. The sun, streaming in through the ancient   
castle window...it was coincidence. He just happened to have found a deserted   
library in an unknown part of the castle, that had one window, in which sun was   
poring in and because of all the dust, made it look misty. Sure. Ron sighed again.   
It had to be coincidence. Okay, so it was strange that he had found this   
hundreds-of-years-old library...but that didn't have anything to do with the riddle.   
It couldn't, after all, he thought, Ron Weasley isn't good enough, important enough,   
to have anything to do with ancient riddles. Besides,what am I he doing here anyway?   
Pondering over some stupid riddle I happened to find in an odd library I happened to   
find...I've had too much butterbeer or something, Ron thought again. He slung his bag   
over his shoulder and stuffed the parchment with the riddle on it inside. No one would   
have known he was there. Except the shiny spot on the floor...  
Ron swung shut the heavy door. All he had on his mind was being in   
Care of Magical Creatures on time. 


	2. Day One: Hogwarts, 7th Year

Ron blinked as he walked out into the bright sunshine on the grounds, a change fom the dusty room he had been in.   
"Ron! Where have you been? We've been looking all around for you!" called Hermione from near Hagrid's cabin.  
"C'mon, we're gonna be late." Harry said seriously.  
The tall, red-headed young man walked down the hill to meet his friends, his shadow still taller than Harry's, but not the way it used to be. When Harry was short...those fun, happy times seemed so long ago. Oh, they still had fun...when they weren't reminded of their lives. It was rare occasion to be wandering the passages at night, pretending they were the Bloody Baron as they hid under the invisibility cloak. Even Fred and George were subdued, and that was saying something.   
Hermione had grown too, and matured as well. Still the same in her attitude, but she had relaxed. These days, though, they needed her supreme knowledge of magic.   
Hagrid smiled to them as they walked towards him. "First day back! Fine day 'or classes, isn't it? My, you've gro'n...I 'member back 'n yer first year, oh, how nervous you 'll were, 'specially you, 'Arry. "  
They smiled back, they could remember it as well. A few years ago, even though it seemed like many, they had had Hagrid's first Magical Creatures class. They could remember stupid Draco's complaints, and what led to a small disaster. Of course, even Hagrid might be willing to admit he'd rather have to worry about the loss of Buckbeak than his own life...  
But Ron couldn't keep his concentration during class, even if they were learning to work with Opalis, dangerous (of course) snake-like creatures with two heads. His mind kept going back to the riddle. Even if any conections seemed stupid, he was going to bring it up with Harry and Hermione tonight in the common room. 


	3. That Night

The commom room was lite with a glowing fire, and the light danced on their faces as they sat in their familar corner.   
"Harry, Hermione, uhm, well..."  
"Ron, youve been acting weird lately. Now just tell us and get it over with." said Hermione, while Harry simply stared on, sleepily. He was soon jabbed in the ribs by Hermione.  
"Ow!"  
"Well, it's this. Now just hold on a minute-" their mouths hung open in an attempt to ask questions.  
" It's a long story. I was wandering the halls, feeling kinda glum because of the bad grade on that test from McGonagall, when Filch spotted me, and started acusing me of doing something. Then he started chasing me out of the way, claiming I had spilled mud on his freshly polished floor. I jogged off, my day not going anywhere pleasant, and I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I just kept going, because he seemed to be following me, trying to get me in trouble for going someplace I shouldn't be.   
After a long time, I lost him, but I just kept walking. I didn't want to be disturbed anymore. That was when I found myself somewhere that I had never been before. Now that's saying something, because in the last six years, we've found many places, and Fred and George have told me about any place else. It was a short hall, lit by a window at the end of it. Not much sunshine came in though, because it seemed to be blocked by a tower. On my left there was one door. A big, heavy wooden door, with an old pewter latch on it. I opened it easily, it hadn't seemed to have been closed tightly, and yet there was dust all over the floor, and no one had been in there. I looked up from the floor, and saw rows and rows of books to my right, with one simple wall on the left and in front of me.  
There was about fifteen feet from the door to the opposite wall, and on it there was, yet again, only one window. But this one was on the western side of the castle, because sunshine was poring in, even though it was nearing four o'clock in the afternoon. I stepped inside further and closed the door gently, not wanting to alarm Filch.  
I turned towards to rows of books, and there were about seven rows, each lined with numerous dusty textbooks and novels. I mused that it must have been a small library when it had been used, and it was quite cozy, with the warm sunshine filtering through the dust. I glanced at the books as I walked the ailes, and settled down on the ground in the third, right across from the window.   
Picking up a book in front of me, I read it's cover, which was nothing but a basic potions texbook, presumably for student use. I had hoped that this might be some sort of restricted section or something, but alas, I could see nothing unusual about the books that stacked in front of me.   
But when I opened the potions book, entitled 'Easy Potions for Third Years', I saw a folded peice of parchment lying on top of the cover page. I opened it up, and, well, this is it." Ron finished.  
Harry and Hermione sat quietly for a few moments, then Hermione spoke up.  
"Ron, this is, well, quite unusual...and that room...how did you ever find your way back?"  
"Oh, that was the surprising part, it wasn't hard at all. I don't understand why no one goes in there. They had pleanty of useful books for all our classes." Ron said.  
Hermione spoke again. " 'Easy Potions for Third Years'...hm...I wonder if it was coincidence that that's where you found the riddle...okay, I'm joking. Obviously, someone put it there. But why that book? Agh, there's so many questions!"  
"Tell me about it. And when I had finished reading, I stared at the sunshine, and was dozing off, untill I realized something strange. The first line, about the mist, well, that's exactly how the sunbeam looked in the room."  
This time, it was Harry. "I doubt it has anything to do with the riddle, Ron. You know, I bet it was just some fake thing that a student made and slipped it into the textbook they were using. I can imagine us doing something like that when we were that age."  
Hermione shot Harry a look. "But the name of the textbook...I think it's important. Let me read the riddle again, Ron. " she grabbed the parchment and mumbled through the lines. "Yes! It mentions four years back! Ron-seven minus four is three. And what does the cover say? 'Easy Potions-"  
" '-for Third Years'! Hermione, you're right!" exclaimed Ron.  
"Oh come on, I think you guys are just trying to make it fit." Harry said dispiritedly. "That's such a streatch."   
"Harry, what's happened to your adventurous spirit these days? A few years ago, you would have jumped at the chance to solve a little mystery. " said Hermione.  
"You want to know why?! Huh?! Voldemort! That's why! You don't know what it's like, hearing your parent's dying pleas every night, growing faintly stronger! You don't know what it's like, to have your scar hurting slightly every morning you wake up! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" and Harry ran up the stairs to the dorm, tripping as he went, a few tears making his fists wet.  
Hermione looked to Ron for some sort of an explaination.   
"I think he's been hiding that for a while." said Ron softly. "He doesn't usually have bouts like that."   
"I'm thinking that maybe he's scared of mysteries and stuff...I guess he's got enough of 'the real thing', if you know what I mean." Hermione said, and Ron nodded.  
"But still, " Hermione turned back to the parchment hestitently. " this is weird..."  
* * *  
Please review!! I know it's not that great, but, please! 


	4. Thoughts

Ron laid in his bed that night, wide awake. He knew that Harry was awake too, he was almost positive, and Neville as well. He couldn't understand why Neville was awake, unless, for some uncanny reason, Neville didn't snore anymore.  
  
Ron was awake for more than one reason. First and most obvious, the riddle, except that he had almost set it aside as some childish thing to keep people awake, that had happened to stumble apon it. Secondly, he was worried about Harry. Everyone knew that gone were the happy lives they had known through their fourth year. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was returning to power quickly, and surely, it must affect Harry. But previously, he seemed to almost enjoy this as an excuse to wander the halls some more-always getting more detentions-but, "saving the day" in the end, along with his friends.  
  
"Yeah," Ron thought, "along with his friends...he hardly even needed us..."  
  
"Yet who was it that he saved from the bottom of the lake?" said a small voice.  
  
"Well, that didn't count. Besides, it wasn't like I was really going to drown."  
  
"Oh, but he thought you would...remember how seriously he took it? He cares about you, Ron, and he needs you, more than you can imagine. Definatly now..."  
* * *  
  
Ron awoke with a start. He eyes popped open and he looked around for what had startled him. Then he rememebered...he had just had a dream. Eyes adjusting to the darkness, (it was only 5:00 am), he yawned and pulled back the curtains of his four-poster. Moonlight streamed in through a window, and he went over and put his head on the ledge.   
  
He looked out across the grounds and saw a dim light and smoke from Hagrid's cabin.   
  
"Gee, he get's up early." he thought.  
  
Before he could stop himself, lines from the riddle started coming into his head. 'Wait for me at the gate, then I will come...', 'Of wonderful times gone by, then I will come...', 'Four years back and dawn is near, then I will come...', 'A sadness upon the shadow, then I will come..', 'Cries in the night, then I will come...', those were the ones he could rememeber. Some of them made sense, now that he thought about it. But some of them...like 'A sadness upon the shadow, then I will come..' didn't make any sense at all. And furthermore, who was coming? Of the ones he could remember, Ron started trying to figure them out.   
  
"Well, the gate thing, I have no idea...but the wonderful times gone by, I guess that's pretty easy, that's now. Still, I don't know why I'm bothering with it, the riddle is probably nothing at all." thought Ron.  
  
He continued to ponder the rest of the lines, but he started to fall asleep again, so he headed to the water fountain and then to bed. as he climbed in though, he wondered about Harry. If he was hearing his parents' cries again...something told him that was an answer, but he couldn't understand this, and his brain was already too fogged to think. He drifted off to sleep...  
* * *  
  
It seemed all too soon that he had woken up again, as now sun was bouncing off the walls. He looked over at Harry's bed as he got up and streatched, and saw that the curtains were still closed.   
  
"Aught to let him sleep..."he thought groggly as he slumped down the staircase to the common room. It was then that it ht him about the line from the riddle.  
  
"Cries in the night!" he accidently said out loud. A couple people that were there looked up at him. "Oh-uh, sorry, uh, didn't mean that." They continued to stare. "Hey, it-uh-was a long night! I'm tired!" he furrowed his brow and gave them a look until they turned away. Ron then started muttering something about his own stupidity, when he noticed Hermione, who was still staring at him.   
  
"Oh, hello." he said casually to her.  
  
"Hello. And what was that all about?" she questioned him.  
  
"Hm? Oh! Well, I was thinking...about that line from the riddle, it matches perfectly with Harry. You know, what he was saying he hears at night?" Then he thought, "Probably another reason why it has nothing to do with me..."  
  
"Okay, Ron, you're probably right, and also, he doesn't want to talk about it, and doesn't really want to talk about anything right now, got it? said a voice suddenly.  
  
"Harry! You scared me! I didn't know you were there." said Ron.  
  
"I just came down." Harry replied gloomily.  
  
"Harry, please cheer up, we're both sorry about what has been happening to you..." said Hermione soothingly.  
  
Harry sighed. " If only everything would just go away, if only Voldemort would go away..."  
  
Ron cringed, but knew after six years that nothing he said would make Harry stop saying the name.  
  
"But Harry, life's not a complete waste, I know you still have to worry about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, but we can still have fun like we used to..." Hermione wasn't sure where she was going with this.  
  
"Yeah, but it won't be the same..." Harry smiled though. "still, it's not fair to you to be all down like I am. Let's go down to Hagrid's before breakfast."   
  
"That's the Harry we like." grined Ron. But he thought back to the riddle...did he dare bring it up again with Harry? But Harry soon answered his thought.  
  
"Oh, and Ron, Hermione, I'm sorry I stormed off like that, I should be able to handle myself better. Maybe we can talk to Hagrid about the riddle."  
  
"It's OK Harry." said Hermione.  
* * *  
Please review this fan fic, it doesn't take much time. I would really appreciate it. I've adjusted the way i type it, so I hope it's easier to read now. ^_^  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



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